Week 3, Day 2: Christ the High Priest

Our FOCUS this week: To personally experience the Lord's Death.  As we do more than give lip service to Christ's Lordship, we immediately acknowledge that following Christ means following Him to Calvary...to the Cross...to our very death.

Our PRAYER this week: That we would be able to experience both intellectually and emotionally the death of our Lord Jesus so that we may later identify with Him in His resurrection.



Start today by reading Hebrews 4:15-5:10.

When I think of a priest, whether Jewish or Catholic or Episcopal, I have this image of an unapproachable, "holier-than-thou" kind of person.  Right or wrong, that's what I think of.  So when I read this passage of Hebrews about Jesus being our High Priest, I get stuck for just a moment.

Until I really start to pay attention to the text.

Jesus, our perfect High Priest, isn't the kind of priest that stands above everyone else and scowls down at all of us "sinners."  No, He is the kind of priest who sees our sin, our struggles, our temptations and has compassion.  He empathizes with our weakness, the Scripture says.

The definition of "empathize" is "to understand and share the feelings of another."  Jesus understands what we're up against, because He has faced the same kind of temptations that we do.  And while He IS God, He was also man...flesh, human.  And when we start to understand that Jesus experienced real temptation...that He actually felt the pull, the desire, to do things that were not of His Father...well, then we begin to see Jesus in a whole new light.

Are you tempted to give in to your body's ungodly cravings?  So was Jesus.
Are you tempted to stand proud and tall, accepting glory as your own that really belongs to the Lord?  So was Jesus.
Are you tempted to ignore what you know in your heart to be right and do your own thing instead? So was Jesus.
Are you tempted to give in to those feelings of anger or hate?  So was Jesus!

And because Jesus experienced all of those fleshly, human temptations, He can empathize with us and be gentle with us.  He can be our High Priest -- a position He didn't choose for Himself, mind you, but was appointed to by God -- and bridge the gap between us and our Creator.

Take some time to think about these things and journal your thoughts:

• How is Christ able to empathize with you?
• How did Jesus' humility play a part in His appointment as high priest? (See 5:5-7)
• What is the Spirit teaching you about our priesthood and how we ought to serve God as priests at Women's Encounter?

Pray today and offer thanks that your High Priest can understand your weaknesses and deal gently with you in them.